Persuasive Speech Outline example
Introduction
I.
Attention getter: Imagine if you had a family member in need of a heart transplant and you
were told they may not receive a donor heart in an appropriate amount of time to save their
life. Maybe you will be told there is not enough hearts donated for your parent, sibling, or
maybe even your child to receive a heart.
II.
Listener relevance: According to the Texas Heart Institute website, included on the
Regenerative Medicine Research page, 5 million Americans are living with heart failure and
50,000 people die each year awaiting a heart transplant.
III.
Preview of Points: Today we will examine the problems many Americans with heart failure
are facing, the factors contributing to these problems, and how the ghost heart can offer a
solution to those waiting on a heart transplant.
Body
I.
II.
First, let’s examine the problems many Americans with heart failure are facing.
a. According to the World Health Organization (also known as WHO) website, 20 million
people worldwide are affected by heart failure with approximately 2 million new cases
diagnosed each year.
b. As stated earlier, of the 20 million, 5 million are Americans.
c. WHO states that the current course of action for end-stage heart failure is a heart
transplant yet the Texas Heart Institute, previously cited, estimates that 50,000 will die
each year waiting for a heart transplant.
d. According to data obtained the chart titled “Waitlist: Heart by Waiting Time Current U.S.
Waiting List” from the Organ Procedurement and Transplantation Network (or OPTN)
website, as of July 11, 2014, there are over 4,000 Americans currently waiting for a heart
transplant with 803 people who have been waiting one-two years. There are 247 people
who have been waiting for over 5 years for a heart transplant.
Now that we understand the problems many Americans with heart failure are facing, let’s
examine the factors contributing to these problems.
a. The leading factor contributing to this problem is a supply and demand issue. As stated
earlier, thousands of people are diagnosed each year with heart failure. Therefore,
thousands of people each year are put on the Heart Transplant list.
b. However, according to WHO (previously cited), within the last 20 years, the number of
heart donations has remained the same despite the growing number of people who need
hearts.
c. The source states that approximately 3,500 hearts are donated each year worldwide.
d. According to the OPTN (previously cited) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, there were only 2,582 heart donors recovered in the U.S. in 2013. Yet, as
mentioned earlier, 4,000 Americans are currently on the waitlist for a heart.
e. Unfortunately, receiving a heart transplant doesn’t ensure survival. A successful heart
transplant also comes with risks.
f. Rejection and infection are two of the leading causes of death in the first year of life after
heart transplantation surgery according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
website (also known as the NIH), on the webpage “Risk of Heart Transplant”.
g. The Mayo Clinic website, on the heart transplant webpage, states 25 percent of heart
transplant recipients will show some signs of rejection within the first year of receiving
the heart.
h. In order to reduce the risk of rejection a patient must be placed on immunosuppressant
drug therapy.
i.
III.
The NIH further states the risk factors and side effects from immunosuppressant drug
therapy.
j. According to the NIH, cancer, kidney damage, and infections can result from
immunosuppressant drug therapy.
Finally, after better understanding the problems many Americans with heart failure are facing
and the factors contributing to these problems, let’s explore how the ghost heart can offer a
solution to those waiting on a heart transplant.
a. According to the article on the Cleveland.com website, previously cited, the use of the
ghost heart could eliminate the need for anti-rejection medicines and their negative side
effects.
b. A ghost heart is described as merely the scaffolding for the heart, according to an article
titled “Ghost Heart” under the healthfit section on the Cleveland.com website, which is a
news and information website for the state of Ohio catering to over 5 million users each
month. This website states this scaffolding supports the heart much like two-by-four’s
support a house.
c. In order to achieve scaffolding, or a ghost heart, a series of steps are required. First,
according to the same source, a heart is soaked in a detergent solution, created by Dr.
Taylor, to wash away all the cells of the heart until only the scaffolding remains. Then,
millions of stem cells are injected into the washed heart. Stem cells are defined by the
Texas Heart Institute website as cells that are able to renew or self-generate. After being
injected with the stem cells, the ghost heart, according to Cleveland.com, is then placed
in a bioreactor. The same source describes a bioreactor as a box that contains artificial
lungs and tubes that will supply the ghost heart with oxygen and blood. The ghost heart
then matures inside the bioreactor and eventually starts to beat and pump blood.
d. According to the NIH, researchers believe the ghost heart will not be rejected because the
heart will be custom made from the recipient’s stem cells.
e. In other words, if the patient’s own cells are being used to create the new heart, then the
recipient’s body will not attack these cells.
Conclusion
I.
Signal Conclusion / Review Points: In conclusion, we have examined the problems many
Americans with heart failure are facing, the factors contributing to these problems, and how
the ghost heart can offer a solution to those waiting on a heart transplant.
II.
The creation of a functioning ghost heart will provide many more hearts available for
transplant. Additionally, it will also eliminate the need for drug therapy after receiving a
donor heart.
III.
Clincher: Increasing the amount of available transplantable hearts will possibly eliminate
some of the 50,000 deaths that occur each year while awaiting a heart transplant.